1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a fuel-air explosive device and directed towards a novel structure designed to safely separate a body of reactive dust and reactive liquid prior to air dispersion and detonation. The invention is termed a hybrid warhead because it combines the features of dust warheads with liquid warheads.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art consists of fuel-air warheads which employ liquid only or those which employ dust only. Liquid only fuel-air warheads have been articles of military research since 1960 and dust only fuel-air warheads since 1981. The limitation of liquid only fuel-air warheads is that they are medium pressure, large area attack warheads. The limitation of dust only fuel-air warheads is that they are high pressure, small area attack warheads. More kinds of targets are vulnerable or greater damage done if a warhead produces more pressure over a larger area. The present invention combines the features of dust and liquid warheads into a high-pressure, medium-area-attack fuel-air warhead.
Attempts to mix or dissolve dust in liquid has presented considerable problems in the past such as demonstrating that they are compatible, that they do not react immediately or that long term storage will not cause them to become unstable. Time consuming experiments were involved for each selected combination of dust and liquid. The present invention separates the dust and liquid thus compatibility, adverse reaction or long term storage problems are overcome.
The present invention allows explosive mixing of reactive dust and reactive liquid to take place without first proving their compatibility. The present invention also allows the warhead designer to select combinations which offer high pressure out to distances that are significant for maximum effects.
It therefore may be appreciated that there is a great need for a fuel-air warhead that will offer the advantages of both the liquid only and dust only warheads.